NEW ZEALAND DIVISION CAPTURES MESSINES

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 137, 9 June 1917, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND DIVISION CAPTURES MESSINES

POSITIONS ALREADY CONSOLIDATED AND FORTIFIED. HUGE MINES ALTER FACE OF COUNTRY. LONDON, June S. The correspondent of the London '"Times" at British headquarters, Mr. Pirrie Robinson, states that the New Zealand Division took Messines. He says that in winning Messines the New Zealanders did their work as they always do, cleanly and well. They sustained only very light casualties. They have already consolidated and fortified the ground with thoroughness aud precision worthy of the highest praise. Mr. Philip Gibbs writes:—Australians and New Zealanders captured Messines m 100 minutes, in spite of a desperate defence by the Germans. They kiUed many of the enemy. Irishmen captured Wvtschaete, English troops taking Battle Wood, south of ZiUebeke. The Hermann arc now massing towards \\ arneton for a, counter-attack. The Ypres salient has been wiped out. VAST STRENGTH OF ENEMY'S POSITIONS. Mr. Gibbs continues--The battle of Messines. wlfich began to-day at daw,,, was more audacious than the battles of Yimy and Anas, because, of the vast strength of the enemy's positions. The massed gunfire was of greater intensity than any previously. Our troops are now lighting f orward through smoke and mist. English, New Zealanders, Irish, Protestants and Catholics. fightmg shoulder to shouldeV have made good progress up the slopes of W ytschaete and Messines. Prisoners are already telling how the British ewept over and beyond tbe German positions. The day goes well. The Messines Ridge for two and a-half years has been the curse of our men holding the Ypres salient. The Germans here stacked guns and every kind of explosive against us. The battle started only after the most complete preparations known to military science. A year ago miners commenced tunnels, laying „ tremendous explosive, "ammonal." which at a touch to-day 1.1-'w up the hillsides, altering the very geographical face of Danders. For a year Mr Herbert Plnmer has been preparing this attack, lie ha. been ready a week w,th guns and tanks and every kind of explosive which modern science has designed for killing men in great masses. GERMANS PINNED IN ZONES OF DEATH. A terrible bombardment, which commenced a week ago, increased in v.olence, working up to supreme fury as dawn broke, lor live days the l.ermans have been pinned in their tunnels. There was no wav out of these zones of death. Kegiments attempting to come up during last night were shattered by our heavy guns, which laid down belts of shell lire that were devastating and impenetrable. A later message from Mr. Philip Gibbs states: Our gunners also smothered the German batteries whenever our airmen revealed tin-,,,. Our aviators have been wonderful. They brought down 41 enemy machines i„ live dais Nocks ol aeroplanes went up this morning in order to Wind the enemy and to report the progress of the battle. " GROUND ROCKS "LIKE SEA IN STORM. Our men knew they were going to attack a Gibraltar, and they expected the enemy to light his hardest for the Messines Ridge. The final outburst of the guns was the most terribly beautiful thing of the most diabolical splendour seen in the war. Out of the dark ridges of Messines and Wvtschaete and illfamed Hill tlO, there gushed an enormous volume of flame from the exploding mines. A New Zealand boy, who came back wounded, said he felt like being iv an open boat in a rough sea as the ground rocked up and down. Thousands of Anzacs and British soldiers thus rocked before they scrambled up and dashed forward into the German lines, assisted by a tornado of shell., which crashed over the enemy's ground. White, red, and green distress rockets rose from the German lines, telling the gunners the British were upon the,,,. Soon these distress signals did not appear. Instead there were British signal.-. ('erinau prisoners began to c-omo back in batches. They described the eagerness of the attackers as so great that sometimes they seemed to be iv advance of tbe barrage. The Germans did not expect the attack for another two days. They made a desperate effort during the night to relieve the exhausted troops by new divisions, which lost heavily i„ coming into the firing-line. FLANS FIXXED TO LETTER AND TIME-TABLE The story of this great victory cannot yet be told, but reports show that our men everywhere succeeded in gaining their objectives with astonishing rapuhty, carrying out Sir Douglas llaig"s plans for the battlefield almost to the letter and time-table. Irish Nationalists and Ulstermen. vying with each other in courage and self-sacrifice, stormed their wav to Wvtschaete and after overcoming a desperate resistance captured all that was left of the famous white chateau. By mid-day our men were well down the further slopes of the ridge, while the field batteries rushed up the ridge and too'; up new pos.tions. Further north along the shoulder of the Ypres salient. English troops captured the greater part of Rattle Wood, south of Zillebeka-I\ aud N.Z. Cable.) ' '

The New Zealanders have worthily maintained in France and Belgium the reputation they won on the hills of Gallipoli for high courage, combined with a q.uet determination to do what is demanded of them by the best and quickest route It was an English general who said of them, and whose comment can be quoted without savour of boastfillness: 'They have never failed to take, an objective set them, and they have always" gained their positions w.th shght losses." Praise could scarcely go higher,' fo, it connotes at that is required of a soldier, implying the infliction of great damage to the enemy at little cost to themselves, that they knew bow to make the best use of cover, and can effectively carry out their set portion of the whole plan ot battle. Their greatest success on the French front was achieved in the taking of Flers. when they went "over the lid" into an inferno of shell lire and fought their way to and through the German line with such dash and success that an unbiassed commentator wrote of this: "The New Zealanders were iv the big sweep dowii from the Somnie ridge over a broad front. For about two miles they had to go, fair targets for shellfire, and they went, keeping their order as if on parade, working out each order with soldierly precision, including co-operation with the 'tanks." They were at their final objective on schedule time, accomplishing their ta.sk with amazingly few casualties and so .little fuss that it seemed a kind of skilful field day manoeuvre. All that they took they held, and still held it when the mists of autumn obscured artillery observation and they were relieved from the quagmire for their turn of rest." Prior to the battle of Flers one of the crack British regiments, with a tradition of glory behind it. and a hundred names of famous battles of the jmst on its flags, was stationed on their immediate right. Mindful of their great name the regiment was inclined to be a little cavalier in its treatment of the "amateur soldiers" of this Dominion. But after the battle their attitude underwent a complete change. They saw and marvelled at the manner in which the men from overseas carried out their allotted task, and thence forward no praise was too high, nothing was too much to do, for the division which had so worthily won its right to be classed with the first of the lighting wnits of the Empire. '"A bloomin' quiet lot who keep to themselves," was one Tommy's comment, "but likeable chaps when you get to know them." After pulling out from Gallipoli in the dying days of 1915, the New Zealanders went across to Egypt to recuperate and refit. The following April they went to France, entraining at Marseilles for their main base on the Channel coast. Here they were schooled in the art of trench warfare as practised in France, and after mastering the methods of attack and defence adopted in siege warfare and getting fit by route marches and drill, they went into the reserve trenches in Northern France. Afjter a fortnight of this they went out of the fighting line aud then took up fch&jr position round Armenticres, on the Belgian border, taking over a frontage of three miles. Here they greatly distinguished themselves in raiding the enemy's line, some of their excursions to the Hun line being on an extensive scale. They always came back with the information required by thtdr commanders, and they j-aided so systematically and thoroughly that the Bodies were kept in a very nervy state. There was never any trouble in getting volunteers for these surprise parties; the whole division was ready to go over at any time. When the battle of the Somnie began the New Zealanders were given a greater length of line to hold, nnd after the fight had been in progress for some time they were relieved and entrained for the Somme Valley. They took up their positions early in September, and about the middle of the month they made their great dash referred to above, capturing the village of Flers and marching through the streets behind one of the tanks with as much coolness and confidence as when on parade. They held it and improved their' positions during the next three weeks, until they were withdrawn early in October and sent back to the Belgian border, where they have since kept the enemy fully occupied while preparations were made for the great coap still in progress.